For those of us who believe in core progressive American values – multiculturalism, civil liberty and civil rights, free speech, a free press, truth in government, economic fairness, environmental protection, inclusiveness, equal justice, a humane society, the list goes on – today marks the first day of a disaster on a scale that until a few months ago was beyond our imagination.

The White House is now in the hands of a pathological liar and megalomaniac, a mutation spawned of our celebrity culture, a thin-skinned authoritarian whose only real constituent is himself, and whose intentions, to the extent we can discern them, are to destroy a lot of the things that make this country (truly) great.

Plus he has no idea what he’s doing. He’s slowly collecting corrupt and venal misfits who hate government and thrusting them into positions of power, with the sickly acquiescence of a self-serving Republican leadership that until recently saw him as a madman. But even they don’t know what they’re saying yes to.

No matter what you may hear in the coming days from the mainstream press and other elite institutions, this is not normal. This is aberrational. This is crazy.

It’s almost too painful to watch, but we all must watch. To the extent that we care about our core values, we must resist. And we need to figure out how to make things better when it’s over.

If one thing is certain, it is that the solution will not come from the current leaders of either of our political parties. Both groups respond to money and power more than to the public will. Both put winning above values. True deliverance from this disaster will have to be people-powered.

Political observers who have not been blinded by partisanship have long recognized that Washington elites are addicted to corruption, cronyism, authoritarianism and international aggression. But like the proverbial frog in the warming pot of water, it’s been a slow and gradual process. Now suddenly we’re boiling – and boiling mad.

Donald Trump ran a long con on the American people, promising them to clean out Washington, make the economy work for them, and disentangle us from international quagmires. He is perhaps the least likely person in the world to do any of those things. But the best con men are astute at figuring out what their marks want most badly.

So on the bright side, perhaps we can use this moment to examine the corrupting influences now so plainly in sight, and reject them, so that whatever comes next, if we make it past this catastrophe, will be fundamentally different.

At The Intercept, we’re already accustomed to viewing the claims of powerful people skeptically, and finding sources willing to reveal information the government wants to keep hidden but the public has a right to know. That is how we will approach our coverage of the Trump administration: adversarially.

And we hope we’ll be serving another purpose going forward, especially as the media elites feel the pressure to accept this as the new normal. We’ll stay outraged. Because there is nothing normal about this.

Top photo: Preparations are made for the inauguration of Donald Trump at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2017 in Washington.

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“For those of us who believe in core progressive American values – multiculturalism, civil liberty and civil rights, free speech, a free press, truth in government, economic fairness, environmental protection, inclusiveness, equal justice, a humane society, the list goes on – today marks the first day of a disaster on a scale that until a few months ago was beyond our imagination.”

Your imagination is way off tolerance, please see a specialist for recalibration!

Your “progressive values” are mere trinkets, see, while healthcare costs explode, wages go to Zero and 3’rd world conditions arrive right on out doorstep, you neo-liberal, fake, “progressives” will peddle LGBT toilets and “diversity” with scum like Bezos and Soros instead of doing anything that matters to the 99%!

I am not sure why but I have a comment I made a few days ago and cannot see it but I am receiving FB responses to it, I see them in my FB notifications, so I apologize if people have asked me something and that I have not responded. I just see likes and who responded but not even my comment. I am not sure how I messed it up but I did.

“The White House is now in the hands of a pathological liar and megalomaniac, a mutation spawned of our celebrity culture, a thin-skinned authoritarian whose only real constituent is himself, and whose intentions, to the extent we can discern them, are to destroy a lot of the things that make this country (truly) great.”

“Donald Trump ran a long con on the American people, promising them to clean out Washington, make the economy work for them, and disentangle us from international quagmires. He is perhaps the least likely person in the world to do any of those things.”

Except for Hillary Clinton, of course.

This whole article is utter dreck. If you sincerely believe in core progressive values, then the crisis point was when Trump vs. Clinton became official. No matter who won that debacle, true progressives were going to lose and lose hard.

At least with Trump, we’ve got a chance to finally kill off the Clinton brand and return the left to actual progressives.

How glib and insulated must you be to write off the consequential human and environmental damage that will be the result of a Trump presidency as an acceptable cost of diminishing the Clinton “brand”? Who gives a sh!t about the Clinton brand?

The very real cuts to vital government agencies from the NEA to the EPA are going to affect me and you and your neighbors real goddamn quick, but hey, it’s totally worth it so that we can shout from a rooftops that a candidate that only agrees with 80% of what you want ISN’T GOOD ENOUGH. Women’s access to healthcare? NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Regulating CO2 emissions? NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Increasing taxes on people earning over $200K? NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Continued participation in the organization that is most responsible for preventing the outbreak of nuclear war? NOT GOOD ENOUGH. It’s all a cost worth paying so that you can cash in on a nonsense grudge that you don’t even have the decency to admit is halfway cribbed from 1990’s right-wing agitprop.

When your first stat is “Vehicle Sales,” you know you have a crap argument. Moreover, your entire post is an exercise in “fun with arbitrary endpoints,” as January 2009 was the bottom of the recession (which never ended for 90% of the country).

Obama ushered in the part-time revolution, with 95% of the jobs created being part-time.

You are correct that he’s been a boon for the stock markets, as he did nothing for anyone except the wealthy, shoveling over $4T into the markets to reinflate asset bubbles through QE.

And give me a goddamn break on the “Budget Deficit.” Here’s Obama talking about the national debt in 2008: “The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents – #43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.”

Square that one with Obama leaving the country with $20 Trillion in debt.

Neoliberalism and progressive politics are non-compatible. Clinton supporters who embrace neoliberal policies that favor Wall Street wealth accumulation and militaristic Empire agendas abroad are not progressives; in reality they are more closely aligned with traditional Bush Republican agendas than with progressives on the Bernie Sanders side.

“For those of us who believe in core progressive American values – multiculturalism, civil liberty and civil rights, free speech, a free press, truth in government, economic fairness, environmental protection, inclusiveness, equal justice, a humane society, the list goes on – today marks the first day of a disaster on a scale that until a few months ago was beyond our imagination.”

So, the bullshit continues unabated by myopic crybabies whose precious psychopath lost the election, with self-indulgent fantasies about what has just passed as ‘progressiveness’. How do these astute societal critics find employment? It’s truly astonishing just how departed from reality writers like ol’Dan here can stomach their own tripe.

Let’s count the piles of pretense, shall we?

1. Progressivism – Just how was it served by Obama? Well, he was the ‘most transparent’ president in history, right? I mean after Bush how hard could it be to establish a better standard, eh? Not exactly. In fact, virtually every policy initiative of the Bush era remains intact to this day: Gitmo’s still open for doing god’s work, tens of thousands are still deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the latter being the longest and apparently endless deployment of force in US history, plus we added Sudan, Libya then Syria in our addled foreign agenda along with Ukraine, never mind our hypocrisy of traditional ‘interference in foreign elections as well as established sovereign government that doesn’t sit well with our ideas for the globe’s future governance. Is all that death, horror, destruction, displacement and environmental devastation progressive enough for you still weepy eyed basket cases.

Or, maybe the mere ‘appearance of liberalism’, meaning ignoring business as usual in the social justice department relating to the ongoing ‘war on drugs’ that Obama ignored and Hillary defended until the end of their tenure. Obama thinks, apparently, that his limited clemency declarations makes up for failed policy that extends back to Nixon. Hillary, on the other hand, just couldn’t hang on long enough to deliver on her constellation of purchased favors, arms sales and human trafficking laundering through IHRC and the now defunctional foundation that enriched her beyond even her most enabled and fevered expectations of anticipated global goddessness. Now, that’s all-inclusiveness.

Or, wasn’t it progressive enough for Bradley Manning to expose the rancid duplicity of American ‘diplomacy’, so-called, as well as its associate practitioners of advanced aerial death delivery systems on impoverished populations in Yemen, Pakistan and Donbass, for example. The tens of thousands obliterated humans were certainly all-inclusive across gender, racial and age demarcations so, maybe that qualifies as acceptable liberal since I see no so-called progressive types upset enough to go to DC to protest the chronic deaths happening to this day from the outset of O’s progressive ‘reign’. What a loss!

Do released emails from dyed-in-the-wool progressives like John Podesta, who’s endured for three decades the scandals of our liberal Royals only to be seen as a devoted pedophile and practitioner of ritual dark-arts within a cabal of avowed satanists, not that there’s anything wrong with that, ..er, well, let’s think that one over a bit, eh? I mean satan as originator of evil may not be that attractive as a concept for progressive’s list of inclusions into the big happy family of every conceivable social variant, ..right? I mean if we’re ok with executive aerial assassination and the unfortunate collateral deaths of infants, children and their grandmothers without so much as a short critical finger-pointing piece in the Intercept about that policy feature of our preceding progressive, peace-prize-prez, .. then maybe we should formally incorporate the devil his/her-self into the diversity of progressivism.

Please excuse me now as I must go vomit in disgust of what we presume in this dark-hour of self-righteous bullshit-lament of the highest, blindest and odorous variety.

Will America follow in the footsteps of South Korea? Trump’s shenanigans are infinitely worse than the corruption and influence-peddling scandal that threatens to bring down Korea’s impeached president, Park Geun-hye. If the court approves December’s parliamentary vote to impeach, Park would become the country’s first democratically elected leader to be forced from office. South Koreans would then have to elect a new president within 60 days, and Park would lose her immunity to criminal indictment. Koreans were demonstrating by the thousands until the parliament listened. Can this happen in America?

I really, truly hope so. Trump and his vile cronies represent a clear danger to not only the country, but humanity as a whole. What I fear is that our typical complacency and hyperpartisan bent will make our resistance ignored until the outrage ends. We need to organize the current feelings into something more productive than we have now.

Not yet 24 hours in the Presidency and already you think so many crimes have occurred that it’s grounds for impeachment?
Progressives don’t believe in democracy, but overturning it. That is the American way now, in every other country, too.

Perhaps buyers’ remorse and an awakening to the realities of what has happened to our country will enable citizens to pay closer attention to the realities of politics, no matter the party. What have we as a nation come to — that we can elect someone like this?

America first ! Buy American and hire American ! Tear up the trade pacts, and disinfect the Washington sewer, and the corrupt dishonest mass media. Oh and George Soros, David Rockerfeller and all the war profiteers and greedy, selfish political elite that were destroying America go fuck yourselves. Enjoy Trump and Brexit because its what you all deserve. Carry on whining, running bullshit media campaigns through Murdoch and in your other corporate owned media, but it will do you no good.

That a person who is a mutant spawned from our celebrity culture was elected President should be no shock, considering politics have become a side show, where the voters/viewers vote for the most charismatic. They choose flash over substance time and again. The pearl clutching is humorous, indeed it seems to be more out of the horror that such a man “represents” our country, as if our country deserves any ounce of respect. I think it’s quite apropos that Trump was elected. It’s the ultimate parody of a parody that is our government system.

Do you kno pives who actually live up to that? I found that most progressives are really just power hungry.

And Obama virtually shat spinach poo on ever single one of those ‘progressive values,’ u there-and the way the Dem’s did Bernie? Man, save it. These are just words that no progressive I know have ever actually lived by-but they read about in textbooks at college, and swapp ethic friend stories with relish, as long as their ethnic friends have status; very few progressive I have known are actually in the trenches with the homeless, or voters rights movements for ex-cons unless there’s a dollar to be had. And I suspect that’s because the usual suspects- men- are the vast majority of both groups.

If there’s anything to examine, it is how the Dems/progressives have been corrupted, individually according to entitlements of various kinds-race n gender was a game ender . Maybe look little harder at class now and kyriarchy, cuz the patriarchy has been dead since before most American’s living today were even born.

Get your asses back into prison reform and the rights of all at the expense of none. Whatever happened to a dialogue about equality without some billionaire backed NGO sponsored troll slipping in “yeah, but 77 cents on the dollar, and elevator anxiety, and micro-aggressions!??”

File those FOIA’s on behalf of the FBI ‘disruption’ of individuals lives (where we find that the vast majority of those targeted by these egregious campaigns of personalized psychological torture are men who have the potential to be influencers in one way or another) and families.

Dig deeper into the way most progressives participate in ‘community policing’ that is really just an identity politics infested snitch program that undermines organizing and respect for due process.

Help those #BDS kids out once in awhile as they struggle through colleges filled with “holohoax industry” shills, and screw AIPAC and it’s umbrella control of all ‘minority organizing,’ because that infection killed your election.

And really- say “vagina” a lot less, and maybe catch the Sabrina Rubin Eredely rapeocausts before they get all ‘piss yellow journalism,” and gee I’m sorry bout that.

I’m certain these things might help restore sanity to the beleaguered cause and crisis in the progressive party. The repubs won because some of them at least seem to have a version of morality – but that sliding scale of progressives is way too oily, and racing towards the slippery slopes of a Constitutional crisis was hard to watch.

Obama the Transparent! Suuure. He opened a lot of people’s lives up to intel agency scrutiny, if you call that transparent. I wonder how well those power hungry Machiavellian in the progress camp are gonna reap what they sowed, and eat what they growed now?

I generally read before posting, but as soon as I read about our multiculturalism, well that was it. This country has always been a racist one where multiculturalism is just a buzz word. End of story, sorry Intercept.

I think a more illustrative day was Jan. 11, when an amendment to allow importing drugs from Canada at much lower cost failed to pass because 12 Democratic Senators voted against it. Just run that around in your head awhile. 10 days ago this happened. I assume all of those Senators were aware Trump will be our next President btw.

Who should progressives be more exhaustingly upset with? Trump, who has never claimed to be progressive (at least, his persona and actions in this election cycle) and does what’s expected? Or Democrats, who claim to be progressive and then stab us in the back and vote 180-degrees opposite? If neither represent us, why in the fuck should we vote for either of them? Fool me once…? More like fool me hundreds of times.

Wax on about how Trump and his reign will be so dangerous and dire, but it’s not like there’s an actual opposition party currently. Not only not an opposition party, but also a specious and facile media, including unfortunately even some writers on this site. I don’t think Froomkin is yet, imo.

Plus dangerous and dire includes obviously Obama–prosecuting whistleblowers, complicit in Saudi war crimes, doing his own signature strike war crimes, failing to prosecute any torturers or bankers, deporting the most immigrants ever, presiding over an increase of wealth gap including of minorities, fighting FISA requests and judicial decisions tooth and nail about transparency, standing to sue by victims, etc. And etc. etc. etc.

This Trump Age isn’t a new Age. It’s just a continuation. And delivered on a silver platter by what Bush did, and Obama expanded. If elected, Clinton would’ve lessened overall rather than expand that too? Intercept articles would be about how dangerous her new admin will be? Give me a break.

A progressive site should be FAR, FAR more pissed at Democrats abandoning progressivism than Trump doing what he’s expected to do. But maybe we’re just inured at Democrats–big on talk, small on action. So instead of holding them to the fire we throw our hands in the air and only focus on Trump/GOP. BULLSHIT.

We The People Are Abandoned By Both Parties. And hell, I lament that even as a privileged American. We the global citizen are murdered, displaced, and injured by the tens of millions by both parties. We the global citizens are murdered and silenced by the death squads and dictators both parties support, train, provide intelligence to, and arm.

But now suddenly this is a crisis because Trump was elected? If it were, why did 12 Democrat Senators vote to not allow Americans suffering illness, sometimes severe, to save 700%+ on prescription drug costs? Crisis? The Democratic Party sure as fuck isn’t treating this as such.

“Donald Trump ran a long con on the American people, promising them to clean out Washington, make the economy work for them, and disentangle us from international quagmires. He is perhaps the least likely person in the world to do any of those things.” Because his ‘chosen’ opponent Clinton without a doubt would’ve fared so much better in this regard? If you guys are going to be posting OP-EDS, label them as such so i won’t have to waste my time reading them! Thanks.

another rambling anti-trump screed with no point. we could set our clocks by them at this point. and this one, as most, says nothing about trump in future tense that couldn’t be said about bush jr. or obama (or hillary) in the past tense.

you need to get out of whatever hipster yuppie shithole you’re sequestered to and realize things have been ugly for a long time. this reminds me of maddow’s incessant whining (along with the hillary campaign) to “leave america alone!” because things aren’t “dark” or “ominous” already and if you guys can afford designer cronuts and the new iphone iteration then those goddamn hicks in the “flyover states” should shut the fuck up and quit being racists babies. because brooklyn = detroit = wichita i guess. oh! and because vaginas.

you’ve neither the writing skill for portentous doomsaying nor the actual events to back it up. it’s cute that you think you’d actually recognize an empire decaying if you saw it but you’d be better off settling down with a craft brewed apple apricot ale and writing something with which i’d bother wiping my arse.

“portentous doomsaying” is kinda repetitive, no? You could’ve said “you’ve neither skill for doomsaying…” or “you’ve neither skill for portension” and I think it’d make your point better. << I've started with this because your diction indicates that you take enormous pride in your writing ability. Ya shouldn't. Throwing in sequestered don't make you smart. It makes you a dictionary.

also, what is that point? because level 9999 convolution there. just throwin' around hipster keywords makes you seem more like a modern iteration of kidpix than an actual, able debater.

PS. The fear here is that Trump's "concrete" agenda is silly: the reduction of regulations resets us to the 90s, the scientific illiteracy resets us to the 60s, and the economic policy resets us to pre-Reagan 70s-80s. Note: all of his ideas are several decades in the past. No innovation. His civil rights ideas, on the other hand, are, umm, regressive. And schools? Let's choose the education policy proponent who shows the worst charter school results in the country.

I hate to say it but I think the Military Industrial Complex of the United States is going to pull a repeat of what happened to JFK. I don’t think Trump or Pence will last the first 100 days in office.

I’d say sustained outrage and over the top insults are not consistent with credible journalism. Stick to provable facts, identifiable sources and you’ll perform a public service instead of generating fake news. Without that, you’ll just appear that it’s “all the news that fits” SJW ideology.

Ahhh, liberal tears are the sweetest of all. Froomkin you don’t understand the first thing about people or America. If you think Trumpco is somehow going to wake people up you need your head examined. You really think Hillary was any less of a corporate whore? If anything she was a bigger one. Holy blue flaming Jesus! Guys like you aren’t have as smart as you think you are. You think you’re not a sucker? Great, because I own several bridges in NYC that I can let you have really cheap.

“No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” – H.L Mencken

For all of you that are foaming at the mouth and gnashing your teeth about Trump…how awful he is, how crass, how stupid, etc… I have one question. Why? Why did he get elected? why didn’t the Dems slay the beast? Why did HRC do so badly that people like myself, a former Dem, couldn’t bear the thought that a craven felonious SOS who felt it was her ‘divine right’ to be crowned President, that I voted for Trump. I, and millions of others. That open borders are not appealing. That continued identity politics and race-baiting was getting old…really old. That mocking white middle class people and calling them ‘deplorable and irredeemable’ was about as disgusting insult ever heard.

Why did the Democrats abandon the blue collar workers of America? Because they detest them. They despise the middle class because it is much more gratifying to take up the sword for minorities, than have to deal with those ‘neanderthals’ the “morons’ the ‘religious fools that believe in God.’

I heard all that and more. The self-satisfying belief that there were SUPERIOR to middle class folks created a party of elites. Just look at all those Hollywood stars. As they go home to their mega-mansions, their face lifts and their dazzling parties to see and be seen, we are supposed to find them so much more knowledgeable than the folks caught in the middle class traps. Who gave them that authority? Just more preening from the faux intelligentsia….

Hey, even Joe Biden, who continued to take the train to work and back everyday- to remember his middle class background-morphed into yet another supercilious Democrat.

Enough of it. So the American people looked at Trump and then looked at HIllary. No contest. They refused to allow the race-baiting to continue, and slammed the door at the woman who thought she was entitled to spread classified information and get away with it.

“Why did he get elected?” It is the question that needs answering over and over again until Americans start understanding the real nature of their country, constitution and political machine.

There are already so many answers that need to be considered seriously. Forget the silly ones like the FBI costing Clinton the election, or the Russians manipulating the election behind the scenes – consider the serious ones about the problems with the Washington elites, big business, corruption, lack of real representation, the party system, lack of attention to domestic economic policies, aggressive foreign policies and so on.

For those of us non-Americans living elsewhere, many of us see a very corrupt country behaving like a spoilt bully, interfering in the affairs of other countries and trying to dominate (rule) the world. We see a country that thinks its better in every respect than any other country in the world! We see a country that starts wars on the basis of flawed evidence. A country that funds terrorists, bombs innocent civilians, spies on its citizens & billions of other people around the world, and tortures its prisoners. When compared with Russia & China’s behaviour, the USA doesn’t score highly at all.

It poses an economic and military threat to a large part of the world. Economically, it nearly brought us all down with the GFC and is likely to do so again, and militarily it is now escalating cold wars with Russia (again) and China.

Trump is a wildcard, nobody really knows what he might do – which means his administration is a huge risk to the rest of the world.

So, until Americans start understanding why it happened, and what they can do as people and voters to change the fundamentals. I don’t mean protest and resist, because that changes nothing. I mean go back to basics and look at the flawed and broken systems, including the constitution, that allowed such a person to become president.

These are the systems that need changing – the ones that now give a person Trump so much power!

Thank you, excellent points and I agree. The risk of a nuclear war would have been far more likely if HRC had won. She has been sabre-rattling with Russia for a long time. Her neoliberalism is apparent to most except to those who voted for her.

Sure, Trump is a wild card. But he is first and foremost a businessman. He is less likely to be compromised by lobbyists and less likely to start and foment war. Before everyone dismisses him, I think this country should see how he handles the neocons and the neoliberals and their mutual desire to ignite war. Hey! Didn’t we just see Obama put Israel under a strain with their non vote at the UN? Put them at a higher risk? Didn’t we just see Obama hand over a chunk of money under cover of darkness, again putting a conflagration in the ME on a higher scale of possiblity?

I have to wonder about the Dems who have ignored these tidbits with their darling Hillary. She to my mind, is a far greater risk to the world than Trump.

Typical far left regressive crap. I used to be a Democrat but suddenly found myself in a party that had no concern for classic liberal values or personal freedoms. I found the party had turned into a group of authoritarian thought police. The left quickly filled the role of moral busybodies that the religious right used to occupy. The morals are different but the intimidation and tactics are the same and often worse. The reason is because this new regressive progressivism is nothing more than a religion. It has its own commandments, dogma, gods, choosen people, zealots, terrorists and even original sin. Like any religion, it is only concerned with it’s beliefs and there is no reasoning with the converts. The converts care about nothing and respect nothing other than their religious dogma. They even refuse to see themselves as a religion and are blind to the fact they are subject to the same traps and logic failings as any religion. They quickly proclaim their beliefs are the only correct ones whilst all others are evil. I am done with Democrats until they abandon this partnership with the religion of progressivism. Reading trash like this only makes me more certain that abandoning the modern left was the correct choice. It makes me more certain that my vote for Trump was the best choice to make. Now you converts can go on and call me all sorts of names as I am a heretic and a danger to your beliefs.

Get off your goddam high horse Froomkin.
YOU are NOT America.
In your warped mind, you think that you speak for the people. I can assure you that you do not.
Mr. Greenwald created The Intercept as a trumpet for truth; you do this website a disservice by writing such trash with your name-calling and false innuendo.
Grow up !

Core progressive American values?
What a joke! The true progressive era values that helped found this nation are virtually the exact opposite of what is now being referred to as progressive. You morons don’t even understand the true meaning of either the word liberal or progressive means. Thomas Jefferson was a liberal and would have had every single so-called progressive liberal Democrat in the Federal government hung for treason by now.

Right ON Dan Froomkin! You describe what I’m seeing and feeling to a tee! Time to get busy. I’ve been apathetic way too long. I’m right behind you Dan.
Take 2/3’rds back 2018
Take 2/3’rds back 2018
Take 2/3’rds back 2018
Take 2/3’rds back 2018
Take 2/3’rds back 2018
Take 2/3’rds back 2018

Spent too much time in the summer Red Camps in the Poconos did we? Belief in “progressive values” simply means silencing those who disagree. Keep pushing on your insurrection, someday we’ll all get together and finally settle everything.

Oh my little Froomkin, how about you stop with the hyperbole and realize that you starting to sound like a scared little snowflake that didn’t get his way. The sun will come up tomorrow I promise. Your “core american value’s” read like they were written by Karl Marx himself.

WASHINGTON — The Senate voted overwhelmingly Friday to confirm James “Mad Dog” Mattis to be the nation’s new secretary of Defense and John Kelly to be secretary of Homeland Security, giving President Trump his first victories in Congress just hours after his inauguration.

98 to 1. Only Kirsten Gillibrand thought the guy who said things like the following shouldn’t be Secretary of “Defense.”

“The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot.”

“I come in peace. I didn’t bring artillery. But I’m pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I’ll kill you all.”

“Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment [in American democracy] and kill every one of them until they’re so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact.”

“Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.”

“You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually it’s quite fun to fight them, you know. It’s a hell of a hoot. It’s fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up there with you. I like brawling.”

“I’m going to plead with you, do not cross us. Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we do here for 10,000 years.”

I highly recommend Andrew Bacevich’s: America’s War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History.
I cannot tolerate war/wars anymore.
After reading, but not yet finishing this book, we are hardly capable of fighting them, let alone getting much of any intelligence (not military; CIA) right.

No, I disagree. People who think, “It’s fun to shoot some people,” should not have access to firearms, let alone command of thousands of people with light arms, warplanes, artillery, MANPADs, etc. — and immunity from being held responsible for whatever heinous acts they may commit.

I’ll put Bacevich’s book on my reading list, but it will likely only confirm what I’ve known for decades. As an activist opposed to our warmongering and worldwide depredations since the 60s, it has long been clear to me that, morality and international law and treaties aside, the US hasn’t “won” a war since 1945, with the possible exception of the pathetic assault on Grenada.

What’s more, in the much-vaunted and -celebrated Second World War, the deciding factors were the grit, determination and commitment of the Soviet forces. The latecomer US made a contribution, of course, and the Brits bore a heavy burden, but the war was truly won on the Eastern Front.

Yes, with your history, it will confirm what you’ve known, in great detail.
I think last week I remarked to somebody that we haven’t won a war since WW2. If I never wrote the comment, I likely wandered off on a tangent.

I have a couple of friends in the Marines and Mattis is a hero.
I don’t condone his language, but I understand why he uses it, to a certain degree. When you train young men to kill, they kill effectively and efficiently. And often wantonly, illegally, and without consequence.

My focus on WW2 has been on the precursor to and birth of the CIA and the continued rise of the Dulles Brothers, who are almost never spoken about these days. The ratlines – Wikipedia doesn’t even mention A Dulles by name. I think anybody going into the WH, Pentagon, State Dep’t, or the IC should be mandated to learn that era of our history.

What I want from the SecDef is to show his Cmdr the effects, the threats, and the positive steps that some in the military are doing to combat Climate Change. It is almost impossible to find Mr General’s history on that.

You will find a lot of information about the Dulles brothers and their associates in the book Bloodlines of the Illuminati by Fritz Springmeier and a whole lot of information about the JFK/Nixon era which is still corrupting the world today

“economic justice” is what drives all the other forms of justice (or prevents them). […] demand that the Democratic party members fight for it unabashedly every single day without equivocation or triangulation, otherwise they get primaried.”

The Sanders wing may already be taking over the Democratic Party apparatus in California. A similar effort should be made in every state. All 50 of them.

The DNC and the neoliberals inhabiting DC and the various state houses are the cause of this mess. Selling out the left to the highest bidder for the last 30+ years has finally come back to haunt them…and now us.

What a pile of piffle. The vast majority of “progressives” and “liberals” didn’t even know what Trump’s election policies were. They bought the Trump = Hitler message and that’s all they heard and preached. It’s boring, uninformed and silly.

Well for starters, “progressives” and “liberals” were still bleating on about mass deportations well beyond the point when Trump made it clear that the focus of a Trump administration would be criminal aliens. Conservative commentators listened to his immigration speech and reported It accurately. Similarly the Left had no idea that Trump supported elements of Obamacare such as coverage of pre-existing conditions. This was portrayed as a change of policy or a new policy despite the fact that Trump had publicly stated this position months earlier.

The “message” came from Trump. He talked about doing water boarding and “hell of a lot worse”. Can a torturer make a good president? No. A few weeks into the campaign and he had already walled himself off from our consideration. And of course the fact that he is a Republican, surrounded by all the usually crooked Republicans, trying to deny health coverage, trying to hand off national treasures for brutal and pointless fossil fuel development in sweetheart deals and so forth, that is all just a big load of crap piled up on top of that unbreakable foundation.

All of you that are democratic just like the publisher of this artical,just want attention. ive personally met trump, and i can tell by his lifestyle and the way he works couldnt possibly affect anyone. I garantee the next four years will pass, and im willing to give him a chance, hell he maybe better at running the white hour better than anyone possibly could.

You’ve got Google, right? Find some credible sources and try to learn why integrity matters, why behavior matters, and why language matters. You really don’t have to be a genius. And hey, with a subject like Trump, you will find it’s actually pretty easy to anticipate what completely unacceptable and in fact dangerous president he will be.

Meanwhile:
I suggest you read a few of the excellent biographies about him. I recommend David Cay Johnston, the only biography I read. Wayne Barrett, formerly of the Village Voice, had been following DT for about four decades. He’s work is remarkable, as was his access. Since DT won the primary, journalists were traipsing through his home. Unfortunately, Wayne Barrett died of lung cancer yesterday, at age 71.

Tweet from author Tom Robbins: On the drive to the hospital where he breathed his last, Wayne Barrett was still doing interviews for a big, tough story on Donald Trump.

A picture of Obama: “The White House is now in the hands of a pathological liar and megalomaniac, a mutation spawned of our celebrity culture, a thin-skinned authoritarian whose only real constituent is himself, and whose intentions, to the extent we can discern them, are to destroy a lot of the things that make this country (truly) great”
As for destroying “a lot of the things that make this country (truly) great” look no farther than 7 ongoing wars, the leniency towards torturers and financial criminals, the travesty of Obamacare made by and for insurance companies, the assault of environment (see fracking in Dakota and Flint), the illegal and immoral drone operations, the illegal and immoral support for Ql Qaeda in Syria… In short, Obama legacy

i agree! the difference between obama and his ilk and madman trump is that the former have an eloquent presentation with carefully crafted rhetoric. they are not as animated and as prone to hysteria as trump. in short, they do a better job of acting mature. but look at the records! in a sense trump’s transparency is a welcome relief. you get what you see- a man undeserving of any respect!

Core progressive values. Didn’t we just do that? 19 trillion for…nothing. Hate and discontent in the streets. Lawless govt that refuses to follow the law. I could continue. Regardless of how you feel about Trump, Hillary was worse. Much worse. Worse actually isn’t bad enough to describe it. Trump isn’t the best choice but he is the president and you should shut your mouth and let him actually be president before you slander him. Afterall 8 years of Obama who never had a real job and sucked at everything he touched is more deserving your ridicule. It’s Obozo who created this “State of Emergency” because he’s about identity politics, which is division. That’s the problem. So when you’re criticizing anyone look in the mirror first and say “could I have been a less liberal leftist hack and made overtures to the right?”

clinton is a right wing hack running as a democrat. many democrats stayed home rather than vote for her. the problem is the elites are sucking up all the wealth, whether they use abortion or identity politics as hot button issues to distract.

Illegal War in Iraq.
1 million dead non enemy combatants.
No WMDs
Biggest recession since the Depression.
TARP fund handed to Henry Paulson with no oversight.
9.7 unemployment when left office.
Increased people on food stamps by 14.4 million vs Obamas addition of 10.6.
7.1 million additions to people living under the poverty limit, Obama added 6.2 million.

Who am I?
W.

I would add Obamas list of shame but something tells me you know it well.

We don’t have a Party problem, we have a greedy, global Elitist problem. As long as people have Amazon Prime, Netflix and 55 inch TV they won’t be bothered to do anything to change it.

We saw it in 2008, and again last year. In a change election, the major party candidate who promises change has a big advantage. But neither major party is really committed to the big changes we need to rescue the American middle class, our climate, and world peace.

While I absolutely agree about diligence, I think it would behoove us to actually see what he does before declaring disaster. That’s not because I don’t think it won’t be a disaster, but because tactically speaking, protesting against what hasn’t happened yet looks a bit silly and is off-putting to those who might be otherwise convinced later with actual evidence.

Yeah, get ready for a long wild ride, but don’t start the revolution yet. Otherwise you’re burning political capital you haven’t earned.

His first choices were to chose Pence for VP and then Steve Bannon for “Special Counsel”. One is an ultra Right wing, misogynistic Theocrat, and the other is a misogynistic, extreme Right white “nationalist”.

Then we saw him chose — despite 100’s of qualified candidates — unqualified extremists to act as foxes “guarding the hen house” .

Many of us have seen all that we need to see. Trump has shown us who he is and who he serves.

That’s not because I don’t think it won’t be a disaster, but because tactically speaking, protesting against what hasn’t happened yet looks a bit silly and is off-putting to those who might be otherwise convinced later with actual evidence.

True. And not to mention that the hysterical, tearful wailing and whining from the Clinton ‘Left’ only results in palls of belly laughter emanating from the side of the victors…

Here we go. The Intercept, the last or extremely rare shining beacon of true, fact based journalism, now sinking into the morass of hosting pure fact-free opinion pieces, going the way of The Guardian and The Huffington Post? Please don’t. Save The Intercept.

This is a really disappointing article. I expect The Intercept to have higher standards than to use vociferous name calling to describe a new president. Why don’t you wait for enacted policies with which you disagree. You are no better than the loser MSM who have thrown away their integrity and replaced it with stubborn partisanship. At least Greenwald still has integrity in his writing.

I think out highest priority here has to be to work out some sort of independent communications. As I understand it, the Trump administration could be killing net neutrality at any time. There is then some implementation lag, but at some point soon we could readily be facing a situation where The Intercept simply does NOT come up on your web browser — and Republicans will hasten to say that this is not “censorship”, this is merely the property right of the broadband provider that owns the franchise for your part of the country. So the question is, what is the way to deal with such a thing? I assume that for a few months encrypted tunnels will work, but eventually encrypted content … simply… slows… to… a… halt… After that, you might be able to play with dial-up IP to long distance providers. That was more than capable of carrying subversive news in the 90s, and could do so still, but when you’re on the run you should expect to be pursued. I’m not sure what the counter-tactic is, but presumably the broadband/telephone companies start cracking down on modems the way that rumor always said they would one day. Which leaves us with “El Paquete”, hand-to-hand Cuban style internet. Unless I missed something. God I hope I missed something.

“…killing net neutrality at any time….” You certainly wanted to say something about Obama’s final creation of the Ministry of Truth (“the 2017 National Defense Authorization Act”). The charming puppet has been always very instrumental. The oligarchy could be pleased with the Act that targets non-MSM sources of information. The presstitutes need protection from truth. http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/29/obamas-christmas-gift-to-trump-a-ministry-of-truth/

what a loser…the man hasn’t even been in office a day yet and already all of the articles about the downfall of america. what you are still failing to realize is that not everyone agrees with you….and guess what? you aren’t always right. what an asshole

What should begin now is enacting MLK’s vision and plans of 1968 to occupy DC that summer. MLK’s Poor’s People Campaign of 1968 would begin tearing down the military industrial complex and the corporate – government systems. This is why he was murdered by the intelligence agencies of the USA. #ReclaimMLK

“today marks the first day of a disaster on a scale that until a few months ago was beyond our imagination.”

I’m not sure this sentence is true. I don’t think I would call today a “disaster”. It’s not like hurricane Katrina. Trump was already confirmed by the electors, and votes were counted before that.

I also don’t think that today was “beyond the imagination” of most people. I could imagine today. Yesterday I was looking at photos of people setting up chairs for the event. Thousands of chairs. They imagined today months in advance?

If we unite with the Democratic Party establishment against Trump and forget their abandonment of the working class in favor of Wall Street, Big War, and Big Energy, we will be shooting ourselves in the head and might as well give up now. For the next group of Democratic Party leaders will end up succeeding Trump in much the way this group of Democrats, from Obama on down, carried forward the policies of Bush (and with Clinton intended to be even more neoliberal and neoconservative than now). We must strike the Democratic Party establishment while it is still reeling from the 2016 debacle or they will retain their hold on power and once again betray the working classes. Prepare to primary every Democratic officeholder up for reelection in 2018 at every level of government. They will only respond to progressives if they come to fear us more than they fear the wrath of their billionaire donors and the military-industrial complex.

I just thought this bore repeating at top of thread. Many of us have been arguing the above point for years.

To “reform” the Democratic party is to necessarily take it over. They don’t have the capacity to do it themselves, nor the will in my humble opinion.

And that means start at the top, Schumer, Pelosi, Feinstein et al and you have to have the courage and will to suffer losses along the way and learn to be an effective opposition as the minority party. They must be made to understand that their neoliberal Clintonian centrism has no place in the future of the party of the working class in America. None.

But the stranglehold of the neoliberal Clintonian centrism in the Democratic party must be broken once and forever. FDR showed the way (even if imperfectly).

That also means that the grassroots activism that needs to take place is rural, retail, door to door, and to millions of people selling them a vision and policy agenda they can get behind in simple clear terms not egghead wonk speak. And in a language that doesn’t pit them against all the “isms” and “identities” that the Democratic party likes to traffic in. That does not mean abandoning those issues or those members of the coalition, but it means walking and chewing gum at the same time, because “economic justice” is what drives all the other forms of justice (or prevents them).

And then demand that the Democratic party members fight for it unabashedly every single day without equivocation or triangulation, otherwise they get primaried.

That’s how your rebuild trust with enough Americans to also drive a stake through the lunacy of the modern GOP as well.

It will take time but it is doable. And there has never been a more golden opportunity in my lifetime to change the direction of this country, because the Trump administration is going to be an epic dumpster fire, and the Democratic party needs to make sure every last thing they do that is bad, hypocritical, not consistent with Trump’s promises–is 100% draped around Trump and the GOP’s necks ever single day without the ability to hide behind Dems pathetic collaboration. And then used as an example top to bottom in the grassroots outreach that must take place.

Do not hide from the idea and practice of flat out calling Trump and every GOP collaborator the liars that they are. It will take time, but it is doable.

The two-party system sucks, almost as much as the one-party system. Under our winner-takes-all electoral system it is impossible to sustain successfully any sort of Third Path to power, so those who think differently (than either Reps or Dems) have no choice but to embrace the identity and policies of one or the other of the entrenched parties.

This will not change unless the Constitution changes… and that will never happen.

To “reform” the Democratic party is to necessarily take it over. They don’t have the capacity to do it themselves, nor the will in my humble opinion.

This is why Sanders should have left the part and split in in two. The only way a party can reform is to split it and see where the follows go. Internal reform will never happen within the Democratic party for the simple fact of how the Super Delegate operate. That structure ensures those in power, stay in power.

Legal Disclaimer: the comment above is intended as first amendment protected free speech, not to be construed in any false light, or factual representation other than what it is prima facie.

However, due to the like of these three baby bombing, security and military industrial complex morons, and their excessive assaults on the rights of due process, and privacy; and their constant conflations of their own privileged impunity as inviolable; and their disdain for the Constitution in general, please be advised that some web-combing robot from any number of intel agencies and private contractors will find the phrase “off with their heads” juxtaposed against the last names of three of the most repulsive people in the progressive fold to be worthy of threat matrix assessment.

Let him ask his buddy Alex Jones, he would be fully aware of what the Government possesses. You should be aware, targeted individuals will find little traction here…G.G. has shown antipathy towards issues spun by MSM as Conspiracy Theory…

I don’t know who comes up with these leftist talking (sniveling) points. The guy has dealt with politicians and governments his whole adult life. If you don’t think he knows how to make a politician or world leader drool you are completely kidding yourself.
He’ll have these guys BEGGING to cut a deal with us before the only political move that is left to them is an afterthought. Your deal makers had a chance for 8 years, and Obama and Clinton were the only ones who benefited from Obama’s directionless, radical Muslim oriented foreign policy. We are sick to death of their lies upon lies.

The purpose of ‘objective’ journalism is to fool the reader into believing that what is presented is true. The Intercept encourages non-objective journalism where the writers prominently announce their biases, so that readers will understand that what is being presented is not the truth. This public service in educating the readers cannot be duplicated by the mainstream media, which can’t afford to undermine itself in this way. The Intercept’s model of transparency in advertising the biases of its journalists therefore sets a new industry standard.

Duce, the mainstream media consists of skinny blondes reading off TelePrompTers; they’re not supposed to have biases because dress-store mannikins don’t, and what is truth to a dummy?

The advertisement of bias is a start, if the consuming public knows at least it is being huckstered and to what end. As for educating them, some sectors of the internet at least are persistent. Volere è potere, where there’s a will there’s a way.

Really? You got the audacity, after supporting a money grubbing, criminal, traitorous, face playing ex-Secretary of State, who used her office to fish for speaking fees, and peddling influence all over the world at American tax-payer expense. It explains Obama’s directionless foreign policy.
People in glass limousines shouldn’t throw stones, idiot.

Obama did not have a “directionless” foreign policy. His policy, and that of his execrable regime, was always directed at creating war for empire and siphoning profit for parasites from the lives and veins of citizens of this nation and all others, into which he could sink his septic and serrated corporate incisors. As such, it was resplendent in it’s success.

You define normal government as a bunch of selfsercing slaves to ego and power. So why is this an aberration? It is merely a caricature. An obvious enhancement of all the bizzarre features that americans have come to accept as normal

All the trumpanzees can’t hold themselves together seeing their God Emperor being torn apart by objective scrutiny, Obama was bad war wise, Trump will be even worse. A little soft Russian rhetoric wont save us from new oil wars, wake up partisan hacks.

Re oil wars, I think not. Did you see Paul Ryan on Charlie Rose a couple of days ago? The plan is to uncork all the regulations on drilling and work a deal with Canada and Mexico to supply 100% of our energy needs with North American oil and gas, and export it to boot, to compete with OPEC. That’s their plan, anyway.

OK, OK, so they haven’t noticed that the price of oil is down to less than half of what it was a year or so ago, so low in fact that lots of small drillers are going bankrupt. But they are going to fix that by bringing up more. It is the same kind of economics as we saw from car dealerships in they heyday of US cars, “We lose money on every car we sell but make up for it in volume.”

A very interesting thought! But impractical, I fear. Iran has been locked out of the oil markets for so long that denying them access would be little more than reinforcing the status quo. As we already occupy Iraq, not much to be gained there either unless somehow the administration doubles back on its denial of climate change and keeps Iraqi oil in the ground.

The key then is Saudi Arabia. It certainly would be good for domestic oil if they were taken out of the picture, but who then is to do it? The US really can’t; after all they are our friends. The Iranians can’t due to geography. Ah, if we had only been foresightful and kept Saddam in power: a big, well trained army and long border with Saudi Arabia places a 1990s Iraq in just the place to throttle Saudi oil production. Unfortunately we cannot put that genie back in the bottle..
And then of course there is Russia. I wonder, really, given Russia’s strong dependence on oil exports, whether our fearless leadership has taken a Russian reaction to our flooding the oil markets into account. . .

Good article except that I don’t agree that Trump doesn’t know what he’s doing. If he is indeed a megalomaniac, then it sure as shit looks like he knows what’s he’s doing given what he’s accomplished to this point and the unrelenting posture he’s demonstrated yet again today. If there’s a bit more to it than that, he’s not going to let anyone know. That’s precisely the method. It seems we never tire of underestimating him.

Trump is an excellent carnival barker who had the way paved for him by the Koch Bros, Singer, Paulson who arranged for 100’s of thousands of voters to be culled from the voter rolls.
These billionaires are the brains in the outfit. Trump will be their — and Putin’s — lil puppet.

I know a lot of commenters here get their rocks off on the fact that a leftist site is willing to attack the Dem establishment, but it doesn’t change the fact that a craven, unaccomplished, proudly ignorant asshole has become leader of the free world, and the more dangerous party now controls all three branches of the government.

Agreed. Some of these progressives need to pull their heads of their asses and realize that with Trump in the White House and the GOP controlling Congress, opposition is more necessary than ever. The Trump Administration is not some minor little kerfuffle, to be shunted off to solely focus on the sins of the Democratic Party (of which there are an infinity).

I would think that the Dems in Congress should realize that reaching across the aisle will simply get your hand bitten off at the wrist. However, it’s not just Donald, even if he does flame out there’s still the rest of this administration and Congress to deal with, and these latter-day Savanarolas are in many ways worse than Our Orange Leader.

I think it’s more of a progressive not a “leftist” view, but I am speaking for myself.
No, it doesn’t at all.

It’s hard for the Repubs, trumpites, and ettes to understand, but this is not a Dem vs Rep issue; for most of us this is not normal in any sense of the word. Accepting the unacceptable isn’t normal either.

The Onion sets a standard for journalism that few can match. The Intercept is only a couple years old so it’s still finding its feet. I don’t engage in scathing criticisms of a two year old because he can’t draw as well as Rembrandt. It’s better to offer encouragement and see what develops.

He means that it is the duty of crusading journalists to ignore the corruption and militarism and hypocrisy of the Democrats because the Republicans are worse. Insert standard cliches about purity, don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good or just screech about Nader. Though that last one fell out of favor after Sanders did what Nader was supposed to do, run in the primaries and support the winner, and he still got demonized.

I, for one, blame Mackey. Had he not put his all into generating fake news and echoing pro-Dem propaganda, perhaps the hundreds of millions of readers this site has would not have had the chance to see it all for the fraud it was.

I think, if you tried really, really hard, you could find a way to write less objective bullshit!

Yeah, we f*cking get it; Trump is garbage. But please don’t post garbage on my favorite news site in response.

I want to read about changes to the wars (non-international armed conflicts) my government is aiding, the rights of the incarcerated, changes to the police-state, the laws that affect our liberties being put through- you know, news!

This feels like the kind of crap-tastic click-bait I’ve been hearing so much negativity about.

This site has never claimed to be, and does wish to attempt to be, “objective.” In general, its journalists are of the “activist” variety. Ironically, they are more meticulous about factual accuracy than many so-called objective outlets.

Further, nothing Froomkin wrote constitutes “garbage.” Some progressives are going to have to adjust to reality: Donald Trump is now President of the United States. Covering him, his policies and those of his appointees, is crucial.

Of course this site will cover all of that. As well as the war brewing between technocratic neoliberals on the one hand, and on the other, progressives, over control of the Democratic Party. I expect all of that to be found here.

This piece is an editorial; any news medium is apt to have them. If it’s news you want, you have but to scroll through the rest of this website. And news (e.g., the state of the climate) has a way of being inconvenient or subjective, if it affects you.

As for objectivity, anything between noun, verb and object is apt to reflect a viewpoint. If someone were, say, to drop a cinderblock on your foot, that might be an objective fact but you may very well have a subjective viewpoint.

Far as I know, our Leader hasn’t declared the Constitution invalid, so such viewpoints, freedom of the press and all that, need some exercise.

Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations. –attrib. to George Orwell

Standard part of any con. No matter how far along you play it, never ever let your mark know that they’ve been taken. Sometimes you have to do all of this. Sometimes you luck out and your mark being so desperate or delusional (or both) does it for you.

Why did millions vote for Trump? Because they’re racist, delusional and in massive denial.

Why did millions vote for Trump? Because they’re racist, delusional and in massive denial.

There were, without doubt, people like that but they don’t explain the vote for him in entirety. Where I’m from, the middle of Ohio, things were a bit more complex. (My emphasis…)

A new study out of Penn State shows that Donald Trump fared better in the presidential election in areas with higher rates of mortality from drugs, alcohol, and suicide. […]

In the Industrial Midwest, Appalachia, and New England, Trump significantly outperformed 2012 Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s election numbers in counties with the highest mortality rates from drugs and suicide, according to the data.

Shannon Monnat, assistant professor at Penn State and author of the study, said poverty does play a large role in the correlation, but it doesn’t explain everything.

“It’s not necessarily low socioeconomic status per se,” she said. “What it really is, is this combination of economic decline and downward mobility that had been building, probably for the last three decades or so.”

In these places that have largely been forgotten and thrown under the bus, where people can no longer find gainful employment, where it’s become much, much harder to eke out a decent living, people who voted twice – TWICE – for Obama were often heard talking about how the democrats had abandoned them. They voted for Trump because they’d experienced eight years of increasing decline even after they bought into “Hope and change” for two elections.

When people are desperate, they will do what little they can to shake up a system that is not helping them. That certainly doesn’t mean Trump will do anything for them, it just means they were desperate enough to try. The ones who were racist as well just did so with more enthusiasm.

The most pressing problem for the American people is the failed election system and with it the failure of our democracy. The people, the 99%, have no representation. The majority of us agreed that both of the major party candidates in the last election were lesser of evil choices. Let’s not forget that.

The two party system failed to deliver leaders and as long as the Ds & Rs have exclusive control over who may be a candidate our elections will only represent the choices of the elite. The Unelected Business Party owns both so it doesn’t really matter which party “wins”. Both serve the elite.

The ascension of the president-elect has revealed both parties as tools of the uber elite. As recently described by Daniel Henninger, the American pinball machine is on full tilt. While we, the people, fight with each other over Trump, Clinton, Sanders, or the Affordable Care Act nothing is getting done with the exception of installing more corruption and shifting more of the nations wealth to the rich.

This Congress is set to be the most reckless ever. Conflicts of interest wider than the Grand Canyon are set to fill our government with people who wish to destroy it while profiting themselves and their overlords.

American capitalism, maybe global capitalism, will cannibalize itself as soon as it finishes eating our government. It has destabilized our government, and many other western democracies, by way of insidious deregulation and trade agreements. Without honest journalism it’s likely to get much, much worse. Main Stream Media is not journalism, it is another tool of the oligarchs. MSM whipsaws the public with its sad quest for ratings and profit.

If election reform doesn’t begin immediately 2018 will be another election that is “rigged” by incomplete ballot counts and by excluding legitimate voters. We, the people, must demand it. None of the oligarchs are talking about it – including their two parties – what do you think the Unelected Business Party will do? The Koch brothers, who have been leaders in creating today’s political environment, seem to want a libertarian free for all. They have very nearly achieved it.

As repugnant as the concept is of protecting against the grassroots, it is factually true if you look at how and why superdelegates came about. I believe it was after Mondale (who was popular among the grassroots) lost to Reagan in a landslide, that the DNC made reforms to make it harder for people like Mondale (and hence Bernie).

And that is exactly why reform of the Democratic Party cannot and will not happen. The only real solution was/is for Sanders to leave the party and take his followers with him thereby forcing Democrats to either change or become politically irrelevant.

Get over it..he is your president now and you and the country are going to be just fine. Bunch of crybabies that didn’t get their way acting like little two year olds. Sad. Maybe we can get all of you sore losers some sort of participation trophy for voting so you can feel good about yourselves again.

And he will indeed get his chance; but that doesn’t mean I have to pretend he deserves a clean slate, especially after all the horrible things he has said to get to this point. The end doesn’t justify the means. I am being a realist: if an unknowledgeable buffoon off the street was hired as a brain surgeon, I wouldn’t ridiculously expect competent work to be performed, nor would I just naively say “give him a chance!” Trump is the equivalent: he has no government experience and is an uneducated and uninformed dolt with authoritarian tendencies.

So do tell us what we owe him a chance to accomplish? To build a ridiculous border wall, to craft his Muslim registry, to open up the libel laws, to threaten his political opponents, to stop the “American carnage,” to further insult everybody on Twitter, to continue his pathological lying, and to consummate his relationship with Vlad.

No, myself and others won’t be getting over Trump. It is going to be a very long 4 years for the likes of you.

Don’t have a twitter account..regarding his use of twitter: why would he even bother with traditional media that has already shown they are going to do nothing except try to bring him down? The same media that cheerleaded the Iraq war..the same media that didn’t see the economic crash coming..the same media that ridiculed the Occupy Wallstreet movement….the same media that got everything wrong with this election. Ive been a liberal my whole life until this election…disgusts me what the democratic party has turned into..but you wont hear that message because you don want to hear it. Enjoy ur worst nightmare come true for the next 4 maybe 8 years. No trophy for you

Agreed. He’s a wolf in lamb’s skin. His disastrous foreign policy brought caos and instability all over the world, including Latin America. He clearly gave his bless to the parliamentary coup of 2016 in Brazil, and for that I’ll never forget (and forgive) him…

When Hell Freezes Over in Stockholm Sweden. The Russians are coming. Domestic terrorists are everywhere. Foreign terrorists are everywhere. Julian Assange is not a rapist (oh wait he is a rapist, oh wait he’s a not a rapist again). Putin is “threatening” the Baltics. Putin is stupid enough to waste all the political capital he’s accumulating at the UN on a single extremely low yield “war” of aggression. Heck in Sweden we’re so threatened by Putin THIS WEEK that we’re even WELCOMING NATO and AMERICAN troops to our Eastern Borders because it only makes the forward looking real unaggressive magnanimous international leader President Putin look better still.

Nobels preemptive award to our first african american president was based on his anti orwellian ant domestic surveillance pro bill of rights anti permanent state of war / emergency campaign rhetoric.

I believe the rationale for giving a peace prize to the former president was to encourage him to ease up on the number of wars in the Middle East. If the former president needed such encouragement, doesn’t Mr. Trump require equal, or perhaps more, encouragement? My understanding is that each new incoming president is to receive a Peace Prize automatically. But awarding a shared Peace Prize with Mr. Putin makes sense as well.

In line with more encouragement, perhaps he should receive two Nobel prizes. First, the Peace prize for the wars his regime will start, and something to recognize his stunning inaugural speech, and general poetic fluency. I propose the second one in Literature.

If we unite with the Democratic Party establishment against Trump and forget their abandonment of the working class in favor of Wall Street, Big War, and Big Energy, we will be shooting ourselves in the head and might as well give up now. For the next group of Democratic Party leaders will end up succeeding Trump in much the way this group of Democrats, from Obama on down, carried forward the policies of Bush (and with Clinton intended to be even more neoliberal and neoconservative than now). We must strike the Democratic Party establishment while it is still reeling from the 2016 debacle or they will retain their hold on power and once again betray the working classes. Prepare to primary every Democratic officeholder up for reelection in 2018 at every level of government. They will only respond to progressives if they come to fear us more than they fear the wrath of their billionaire donors and the military-industrial complex.

Well said. I am furious and I need a way to channel my anger constructively.

But this isn’t a case of the Earth is flat when you say “Both groups respond to money and power more than to the public will. Both put winning above values. ” That may be true but if the democrats were in power, they would not abolish the ACA. They would not gut environmental regulation nor cut off funding for climate change research. They would not try to install a wacko christian zealot with no respect for separation of church and state in the position of secretary of education.

Glad to see there are passionate people who are willing to take on the establishment. If there’s one thing I’m absolutely sick of in media is all the false-equivalency of opinions to facts. The stupid argument of giving campaign slogans, business advertising, and prejudice opinions as much weight as facts and evidence has destroyed the media. I’m so tired of hearing journalists justify and rationalize why ignorant stupid prejudiced opinions should be considered as thoughtfully as evidence and researched facts.

Stay brave and resolute in your cause. There will be plenty of trolls crying about “impartiality” when all they’re asking for is validation of their stupidity. Challenge their views and stay true to your convictions. Do not pander to those sycophants just for a few clicks or views. That is what got us in this mess.

That is how we will approach our coverage of the Trump administration: adversarially.

Great policy.

Six months too late. Years too late depending on where you start counting. (I began counting on Dec. 13, 2000).

But I’m afraid you were too kind not only to Trump, but to the American people — at least those who voted for Trump … and those who find this even slightly acceptable … and those who want to get along to get along … and those who denigrate and destroy the precepts of decency and fair play … and those who hope that if it gets bad enough, it might just get better (because that “bad enough” always, always falls upon the least able to cope with it) … and those who think violence and threats of violence bring anything but more violence and more threats … and to those who refused to protect and empower those most needful of protection and empowerment (and by the most needful I don’t mean gays and women, but those who directly suffer the callous violence of State-sponsored scapegoating — immigrants, minorities, prisoners, children, the sick, and those many, many millions who’ve lost hope.)

In short, those who refuse to condemn this American disease defined by greed, shallow celebrity, empty spirituality, materialism, belligerence, privilege, and obliviousness.

Trump embodies and promotes all of this darkness.

Adversarial?

How about condemning not only Trump but all those who condone his fascist inclinations?

Sure, they’re free to say what they want to say. I’m equally free to condemn them for it. So is everyone.

So true, and there is so much to be said about our unawareness of normality as Dr. Bartlett points out.

“psychologically normality cannot serve as a justifiable standard in terms of which to distinguish good from dysfunctional mental health; second, that today’s “mental disorders” are not so much a matter of “myth” but of conceptual and empirical error; and, third, that we are in need of revised and revitalized concepts of mental health and the treatment of human psychological problems”

He also said that

“Mediocrity, for Camacho Naranjo, needs to be understood primarily as a phenomenon that affects individuals and not purely as a negative judgment of contemporary society (p. 29). He makes clear that the recognition nition of mediocrity is relative to an overall context of valuation, of grades of value, in terms of which we make judgments (pp. 34-35). From this point of view, the Peter Principle helps to explain how people can he expected to rise in the ranks of their job or profession until they reach a level at which their performance is incompetent, and then, because they can advance no further, they remain there. As a result, the world falls to the hands of the mediocre, a world in which nothing works correctly (p. 62). Excuses for mediocrity multiply: the mediocre evade personal responsibility, attributing shortcomings and failures to the system or institution in which they live and work, but they are quick to claim credit for any successes and attribute these to their own personal abilities (pp. 56-66). Mediocrity brings about a decline in creativity, behavior becomes routinized, and the way is paved for political repression and totalitarianism ism (Chapter IV).

Steven James Bartlett. Normality Does Not Equal Mental Health: The Need to Look Elsewhere for Standards of Good Psychological Health

The peter principle is rampant in our political process and with Trump’s administration it’s only going to get worse. How can we possibly get out of this madness? And it’s not just those in power who are mad -we are too. We need to realize that the only way to make a transformational difference for humanity is with a radical psychological awakening by realizing we have unwittingly confined ourselves within the field of normality which is making us dumb and stupid- to put it bluntly. The only way to inoculate ourselves from this collective madness is to be vigilant of false narratives especially those within our own political party and by the news media. All manner of false narratives are being concocted like a toxic brew and injected into into us 24/7 as the means to brainwash us into thinking of things that are not true. We often think that those outside ourselves are wrong and we are right when it reality no one has a monopoly on the truth. But it can be discovered with the right kind of knowledge and Dr. Bartlett’s book is a good start.

Trump is just s symptom of the blatant corruption within the DNC. Had they not interfered with our Democratic process, today Bernie would have been president. They changed to course of history for the worse and I will never forget it.

The best journalists, including some of the most venerated by history today have never been impartial in the sense you think of it. The Intercept had an article on it before, quoting:

“Indeed, some of the most important and valuable moments in American journalism have come from the nation’s most influential journalists rejecting this cowardly demand that they take no position, from Edward R. Murrow’s brave 1954 denunciation of McCarthyism to Walter Cronkite’s 1968 refusal to treat the U.S. government’s lies about the Vietnam War as anything other than what they were. Does anyone doubt that today’s neutrality-über-alles journalists would denounce them as “activists” for inappropriately “taking a side”?”

I don’t require a journalist to be impartial, honestly. I do however expect a few things: a) Honestly report the facts, b) be able to discern opinions from facts, c) when presenting opinions, include supporting facts, and d) actually have something to say.

Sadly, this tripe meets none of those criteria. People like Glen Greenwald I greatly respect as a journalist as he meets all that criteria even in the cases I don’t agree with him on. Consequently I end up often reading his columns even on topics that don’t interest me.

Let’s examine this “story” though. It basically calls Trump every name in the book for having the audacity for being sworn in while not mentioning in any way how “civil rights” and over values are being destroyed. It provides ZERO informational value, all the while chanting “The sky is falling” and “We must not let this stand! Who’s with me?”.

It’s pathetic. If you’re going to write an opinion piece, then at least back up your assertions that the enemy is the anti-Christ with fact and have the decency to actually have something specific to complain about.

The relevant distinction is not between journalists who have opinions and those who do not, because the latter category is mythical. The relevant distinction is between journalists who honestly disclose their subjective assumptions and political values and those who dishonestly pretend they have none or conceal them from their readers.

Moreover, all journalism is a form of activism. Every journalistic choice necessarily embraces highly subjective assumptions — cultural, political or nationalistic — and serves the interests of one faction or another. Former Bush D.O.J. lawyer Jack Goldsmith in 2011 praised what he called “the patriotism of the American press,” meaning their allegiance to protecting the interests and policies of the U.S. government. That may (or may not) be a noble thing to do, but it most definitely is not objective: it is quite subjective and classically “activist.”

But ultimately, the only real metric of journalism that should matter is accuracy and reliability. I personally think honestly disclosing rather than hiding one’s subjective values makes for more honest and trustworthy journalism. But no journalism — from the most stylistically “objective” to the most brazenly opinionated — has any real value unless it is grounded in facts, evidence, and verifiable data. The claim that overtly opinionated journalists cannot produce good journalism is every bit as invalid as the claim that the contrived form of perspective-free journalism cannot.

He did not con his way into the White House. The Democrats, superdelegates, and the media colluded and put him there by stealing the primary from Bernie. If anyone is to blame for this mess, it the Democrats for running the only candidate on the planet capable of losing to Trump. Despite her unfavorable ratings, baggage, and the ongoing FBI investigations, they rigged the democratic process to give Hillary and her billionaires their turn. They left the voters no choice. More of the same or blow it up.

I would agree with you completely except for one thing, and it’s the same thing that would have avoided the disasters of GW Bush and Obama: voting Green.

I read a sign on a snow sculpture that some homeless guys put up along the pathways on the left bank of the Isar, which I will translate for you: “People believe what they see. Unfortunately they see only what they want to.” (Leute glauben was sie sehen. Leider sehen sie nur was sie wollen.)
The American electorate is blind to the possibility of another way, and so doom themselves and their country to the ever downward spiral offered by the democrats and republicans.

Another thing that has been buried under all the ‘Russophobia’ are the contents of those emails, in particular the ones where the Clinton campaign discussed the strategy of shutting down the chances of any moderate Republican opponent and going for a “Pied Piper” to represent the opposition. Their lapdogs in the media did their part…in spades,on one night in particular even showing any empty podium awaiting Trump’s arrival and completely ignoring the tens of thousands of people at the Bernie Sanders event.
They WANTED Trump for an opponent, the emails make that clear, the media did their part to make it happen and the Democratic Party did their usual campaign of ‘fear the other guy’ and ‘we suck less’ . Yes Hillary has more baggage than an airport but look over there! we’ve a scary guy running against her so she is better for you!
Ads had nothing about what they had to offer anyone other than the fact Hillary wasn’t Trump, it wasn’t about ‘the people’ and THEIR needs but like their campaign slogan it was all about being with “Her”.

Not well. Could lose housing voucher,health insurance,food , etc. Not alone. Imagine how this feels folks.
This article has not one word of exaggeration.
Maniac may kill the fucking world but fast boyo.

All of the things you say you’re for were decimated under the Obama presidency. The 4th amendment was completely gutted at all levels. The 5th was shredded. 8 years of perpetual war, bombing 7 different countries and killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people, never mind more US military deaths than during Bush. NSA spying like never before and all the information they collect being available to ALL US government agencies, as well as state and local, without any sort of due process. Instead of turning unrest into points of discussion and peace, the flames were fanned to burn hotter.
All Trump is going to do is keep the whole thing going. The fact that you slumbered through the last 8 years is your own fault.

There have been plenty of writers here who have paid attention, but obviously Dan isn’t one of them. Everything he wrote in the first two paragraphs can be equally applied to Obama and he doesn’t even notice the irony of his own statements.

You have to actually read Froomkin’s numerous articles published at The Intercept in order to express an educated opinion about them and about Froomkin. You were given that chance as each of those many articles were published at The Intercept, and then given that chance again at the bottom of this article by clicking on his name, and then given that chance once again as I’ve linked to that same link found at the bottom of this article.

Yup. I’m really puzzled at this phenomenon wherein someone comes in to read a given article on a given topic and,

a. Complain it doesn’t cover the other side adequately/at all/in the right place in the article
b. Assume – 99% of the time without so much as looking online for other articles by same author – that the author has never written anything on the opposition.
c. Assume an author is a democrat/republican/libertarian/voodoo doctor based on a single article.

It’s just bizarre how some people seem to be stuck in a snowglobe and think that the rest of the world is too because they’re having such a hard time seeing through the plastic snowflakes. :-s

Dan’s affliction, if you wish to call it that, is clinging to the irrational belief that Hillary would have been better than Donald, and that the democrats are better than the republicans. That does not prevent him from criticizing the democrats when they are in power, but unhinges him when they are not.

As you have pointed out, in terms of the most egregious of US policies, all Barack “Hope and Change” Obama deigned to do was to continue or expand them. If his style is different, so what?

Your take on Froomkin’s writing is based on fantasy and ignorance. I’m not opining on the totality of the stances that Froomkin takes in his writings, but your broad brush paint job is just a wreck in that it has no basis in the reality of what he has written.

This article is WAY over the top, this site usually has outstanding stories; but Mr. Froomkin can clearly not but his bias aside in this matter. Lets actually let the man have his 100 or so days before we call him an authoritarian. Just a ridiculous article, I expected better!

I think you’re on the wrong site, homeboy. If you want ivory tower opinions, fake objectivity and establishment parrot-speak, there are plenty of other outlets available – your browser may even have them pre-loaded for you. Anyway, seek one out. Your comments will fit in better there, I’m sure. ;)

@JB What purpose does your elitist comment serve? If Chase does fit the stereotype you have so casually applied to him, then he would benefit greatly from spending some time on The Intercept. Is making yourself feel intellectually superior really more important than helping people to get educated and informed?

Joe, please don’t walk up and tear your fucking clothes asunder on an anonymous comment thread. It’s rude! And no, buddy, it’s not my job to do any of that “educate” crap you mentioned, and I couldn’t care less about the rest of your comment except I would like to add that you’ve got intellect all wrong. It’s more of an aptitude, than it is a sensation.

I just assumed this site (and especially Mr. Froomkin) approached journalism the way journalism should be approached, meaning that clear and utter bias is not supposed to infiltrate the article. There is nothing now President Trump has officially done that deserves this amount of hate and fear mongering at the moment. If in several days, weeks, months it comes to fruition that his policies are clearly in line with the megalomaniac authoritarian portrayed in this article I will totally eat my words. I really enjoy this site and love Mr. Froomkins’ stories, however, I was just disappointed in the presentation of this article. JB and Gert for you to say i’m on the wrong site just suggests to me that you want this site to be something it wasn’t founded to be! But we are all entitled to our opinion so I will respect this article and your criticisms on my dislike of the article, because that is what an adult does.

“Human beings are not objectivity-driven machines. We all intrinsically perceive and process the world through subjective prisms. What is the value in pretending otherwise? The relevant distinction is not between journalists who have opinions and those who do not, because the latter category is mythical. The relevant distinction is between journalists who honestly disclose their subjective assumptions and political values and those who dishonestly pretend they have none or conceal them from their readers. Moreover, all journalism is a form of activism. Every journalistic choice necessarily embraces highly subjective assumptions — cultural, political or nationalistic — and serves the interests of one faction or another.” – G. Greenwald

Now. With one of the Intercept’s co-founding editor’s words fresh in your mind, please tell us again how you want Froomkin to – how’d you put it? “Be more objective”? – while writing on The Intercept? smh … Go read the full back and forth with Keller. Much better than what’s on da TV.

And I thought most readers of this site would know the difference between an opinion piece and a journalistic endeavor, complete with links and supporting documentation. This article is clearly an opinion piece.

The White House is now in the hands of a pathological liar and megalomaniac, a mutation spawned of our celebrity culture, a thin-skinned authoritarian whose only real constituent is himself, and whose intentions, to the extent we can discern them, are to destroy a lot of the things that make this country (truly) great.

The problem is convincing the people without money (the 99%) to stop revering and worshiping the wealthy. The lie that everyone can become vastly rich keeps people from turning a critical eye towards the wealthy–it’s almost as though the poor believe they deserve to be where they are, yet fail to realize that they are the reason wealthy people exist. We the poor do all the work. We deserve better. Not enough of us realize that.

“For some time now, one of the most successful tactics of the ruling class has been responsibilisation. Each individual member of the subordinate class is encouraged into feeling that their poverty, lack of opportunities, or unemployment, is their fault and their fault alone. Individuals will blame themselves rather than social structures, which in any case they have been induced into believing do not really exist (they are just excuses, called upon by the weak). What Smail calls ‘magical voluntarism’ – the belief that it is within every individual’s power to make themselves whatever they want to be – is the dominant ideology and unofficial religion of contemporary capitalist society, pushed by reality TV ‘experts’ and business gurus as much as by politicians. Magical voluntarism is both an effect and a cause of the currently historically low level of class consciousness. It is the flipside of depression – whose underlying conviction is that we are all uniquely responsible for our own misery and therefore deserve it. A particularly vicious double bind is imposed on the long-term unemployed in the UK now: a population that has all its life been sent the message that it is good for nothing is simultaneously told that it can do anything it wants to do.

We must understand the fatalistic submission of the UK’s population to austerity as the consequence of a deliberately cultivated depression. This depression is manifested in the acceptance that things will get worse (for all but a small elite), that we are lucky to have a job at all (so we shouldn’t expect wages to keep pace with inflation), that we cannot afford the collective provision of the welfare state. Collective depression is the result of the ruling class project of resubordination. For some time now, we have increasingly accepted the idea that we are not the kind of people who can act. This isn’t a failure of will any more than an individual depressed person can ‘snap themselves out of it’ by ‘pulling their socks up’. The rebuilding of class consciousness is a formidable task indeed, one that cannot be achieved by calling upon ready-made solutions – but, in spite of what our collective depression tells us, it can be done. Inventing new forms of political involvement, reviving institutions that have become decadent, converting privatised disaffection into politicised anger: all of this can happen, and when it does, who knows what is possible?”

“The White House is now in the hands of a pathological liar and megalomaniac, a mutation spawned of our celebrity culture, a thin-skinned authoritarian whose only real constituent is himself, and whose intentions, to the extent we can discern them, are to destroy a lot of the things that make this country (truly) great.”
Wow-you just described the last 8 years under the clown Obama. I am beginning to think liberalism and progressive are terms for mentally unstable folks.

I think it only serves to support your overarching point that my first reaction to the beginning of your post was that it was hyperbolic. In fact, you are spot on, and what I was experiencing was the absurdity of our reality and the effect of the slow stretching out of my moral and ethical compass from being inundated with such extreme points of view as has been foisted on us for years now.

Our government, by and large, no longer has a moral or ethical center. It barely even musters the pretense at these things any longer. It simply exists to enhance the status, money, and power of those who already possess those things, often on the backs of people from whom they have conned them away.

“Our government, by and large, no longer has a moral or ethical center. It barely even musters the pretense at these things any longer. It simply exists to enhance the status, money, and power of those who already possess those things, often on the backs of people from whom they have conned them away.” I could not agree more. And for that very reason it is useful, calming even, to reflect on the fact that had President Trump’s principal opponent been elected instead, things would have hardly been better.

For despite the existence of progressivism in all its manifestations as enumerated by Dan in the article, the reality is that the democrats merely pay lip service to it, while pursuing contradictory policies. Unfortunately, the half of the electorate that voted for Clinton fail to recognize the difference between words and actions that affect the democrats to the same degree as it does the republicans.

Yes, Jeff. The sad silver lining to a Trump presidency is that I think it may (perhaps unintentionally) be more transparent and will reveal more of the rot at the heart of our red, white, and blue apple. A Clinton presidency would just have continued to attempt to hide that rot. Sadly, I don’t think democrats (certainly not Democrats) will be any more successful than most republicans at seeing beyond the partisan narrative designed to divide us. I’m truly shocked at how many people I know believed President Obama and Hillary Clinton were actually liberals.